Carnatic ragas make it to gym playlists

Are you bored of the same playlist of pop, rock and film music blaring in the gym? Try listening to Carnatic music while working out or walking in the nearby park, say fitness enthusiasts, who are also rasikas of this genre of music.

For Veeraraghavan RK, Carnatic music has been a constant companion during his workouts. He tells us how it all began. “Though I am an avid rasika, I could identify only a few ragas and kritis. I was keen to acquire a better knowledge of Carnatic music. Since I am a fitness enthusiast, I thought why not listen to Carnatic music while working out. I wanted to understand 15 ragas and made a playlist. Usually, I add a lot of music like pop, rock and film songs and put it on shuffle mode while working out. But once I found Carnatic music enjoyable, I stopped listening to other genres of music altogether,”he says.

Veera claims that listening to Carnatic music worked out well for him and in the process, he found out a lot of captivating renditions. “It is really soothing to listen to Carnatic music while walking on a treadmill or playing a couple of rounds of golf. I’ve made a playlist of my favourite workout ragas and each day, I pick one. These days, I am listening to kharaharapriya raga. If I am in a mood to hear soulful music, I pick some melodious ones.”

Music is a subjective experience and studies have revealed that it motivates people to workout harder. But Narayanan Vedantham from the city says that Carnatic kritis are the best and have inspired him for effective workouts. “I listen to all types of music, but Carnatic music has produced the best results. The seven swaras of classical music create agreat effect on the human brain and hormonal system.”

He prefers the ragas shanmukhapriya and vivadi while doing yoga in the morning and todi and kharaharapriya ragas while walking in the evening. “I also like exercising to instrumental music like violin, mandolin and veena. The music takes away my strain and helps me feel refreshed.” Realising the popularity of Carnatic music for workouts, MadRasana, city-based classical arts outfit, is planning to release ‘classical workout albums’.

“Last December, during the MadRasana Music Festival, I met a couple of people who told me they like listening to Carnatic music when they workout either at the gym or at home. I wanted to find if more people listen to it and conducted a survey. Around 300 people responded to it and we got to know rough statistics on the popular ragas, kritis and Carnatic singers,” says Mahesh, founder of MadRasana.

The responses led team MadRasana to come up with the idea of customising kutcheris into workout music. Currently, the organisation is recording Carnatic concerts happening in Chennai.

“The idea is to bring out six albums with Carnatic music by various artists. These songs can be shuffled according to the listener’s choice while working out. There will be slow, medium and fast-paced songs that would allow to perform the exercises at various speeds,” elaborates Mahesh.